Starting in Goal as an Adult

[beedee 227]

Looks like same'o when it comes to the defense, or lack there of.

One thing I noticed (this comes from me watching tons of videos on goaltending as well as working on this myself) at 1:25 of your video is that your shoulders look to be turned in the wrong direction as you track the puck, then you drop your right leg instead of your left, causing you to lean to the right and leaving the left side pretty open. I could be wrong but it seems like if you had your shoulders more square (more to the left than right) and then if you dropped your left leg/pad and pushed with your right skate you would have been able to cover that area in a butterfly slide, while keeping your chest straight up.

At 6:10'ish it looks like you got up on the wrong foot, used the left when you should have used the right, might have been able to get a good backside push to t-glide over to the far post there.

It has to be frustrating overall though with the lack of defense man, I'd also be frustrated at all the extra whacks that go on when the play is seemingly over but these guys feel like they just have to score at any cost.

Edited June 24, 2015 by beedee

[IPv6Freely 2092]

A couple things.... I don't know how to do butterfly slides or t-pushes so those wouldn't have happened even if I had got up on the right foot :)

[beedee 227]

A couple things.... I don't know how to do butterfly slides or t-pushes so those wouldn't have happened even if I had got up on the right foot :)

Whaaaat? Why not man? Do you ever practice them? I see you bust a few half pushes during these videos here and there when you are moving to your right.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Whaaaat? Why not man? Do you ever practice them? I see you bust a few half pushes during these videos here and there when you are moving to your right.

When am I ever going to practice them?

[beedee 227]

When am I ever going to practice them?

I wasn't sure if you ever did clinics or sticktime/stick & puck. That is where I work on a lot of stuff.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I wasn't sure if you ever did clinics or sticktime/stick & puck. That is where I work on a lot of stuff.

Nope, no real time for either.

[beedee 227]

Gotcha. There is one here in Anaheim on Wednesday nights that I have hit a few times, it is at 8:40pm, so it is doable for me after work. Once in a great moon there will be a weekend StickTime on a Saturday (such as last) at my local rink in Lakewood that I go to as well. Our games are on Sunday afternoons/

[ktang 34]

I wasn't sure if you ever did clinics or sticktime/stick & puck. That is where I work on a lot of stuff.

Nope, no real time for either.

Do them at the beginning of warmups, after stretching in the dressing room? A few reps per game, and eventually you'll get to Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 reps! That's what I'm telling myself, anyways.

[bunnyman666 445]

I practise mine at open skates. Of course since I have switched pads, my butterfly slides BLOW and I have sucked wind ever since. In preparation for my surgery, I haven't had as much time to work with this stuff, and it shows. Once I am healed from surgery, I will get back to work on that stuff. Practising getting around net, whether it be slides, T-pushes, or shuffles. You can at least practise T-pushes and shuffles with no pads.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I wish so badly that I had time to go to open skates and stuff. I haven't been on the ice for anything other than games or pickups in close to a year.

[bunnyman666 445]

Then get to the rink as early as possible, get on the ice, then practise. You could improve your game by leaps and bounds. You have great positioning and instincts.

Edited June 25, 2015 by bunnyman666

[BenderHockey 127]

Playing in pick ups with no defense or no real game situations will only re-enforce bad habits. It won't improve good ones.

[psulion22 402]

When am I ever going to practice them?

In your crease while the puck is in the other end. There are very basic drills you can do by yourself to teach crease movements that can just be done in the crease for a very short time. Make a T-push to your right. Then one back to your left. Then back and forth until the play comes back down to you. It's not a real practice, but it's still a few reps. Or stand on one post like the puck is in the corner. T-push up to the top of the crease (as if puck is in the circle), then over to the top of the crease on the other side (went to other circle), then back to the post (back to corner on same side). Then go the other way. That's 3 T-pushes in one direction simulating a game situation. It's good practice. You could do the same by going across the crease (right post to left crease to right crease back to left post). And this same exact drill can be used for butterfly pushes. Just sit on your knees. Make one push to your left. Then one push back to your right. Then go from one post, to the top of the crease, to the other post this way you learn to rotate your head->hands->hips. Then you can do a combination of T-pushes and slides using those 4 points. Post->T-push to top of the crease->slide back to the other post. You don't need a full sheet and a lot of time to get reps in.

[Law Goalie 147]

I second the above. The cheapest and most convenient empty ice you'll ever find is the stuff sitting beneath you while the puck's at the other end. Given that it takes elite players in full-stride about 8 seconds to go end to end, you'll have plenty of time to recover. You'll also get a much, much better workout from your time-on-ice.

Now, in fairness, Optimus seems to have complained repeatedly in this thread about an imbalance in his regular skate that leads to him getting tons of shots and pressure while the other guy stands idle. My suggestion, in that case, would be to arrange a partial or occasional switch: for example, playing the first half or even the first 10-15min in the 'slow net', then switching into your regular end, or alternating ends every other skate. I've found myself in a similar skate -- the 'captains' mutually agreed to stack one team against me -- and every once in a while I do ask to switch things up for part of the time, even though I also skate by myself for an hour beforehand, and do enough coaching that I have plenty of opportunities to work on pure technique.

The one qualification I would add to Bender's comment above is that it is possible to play defence-free or unrealistic scoring chances in ways that don't create or reinforce bad habits. This is something I've tried to teach every goalie I've ever coached, because in almost any practise they'll have to face some kind of silly situation; there are only a tiny number of coaches who always produce well-structured drills from a goaltending perspective. The key is to recognise that they're silly situations, and make a conscious effort to defeat them.

For example, one of the dumber tactics out there is extending your stick into an almost full paddle-down reach in an attempt to cut off any possible passes. Against patient, cognisant shooters, if used regularly, this will get you torched every time. But if you throw it out every once in a while, it can confuse the hell out of the puck-carrier in a 3v0. Hasek did this brilliantly a few times, usually in conjunction with a Hasek Roll. You can also try stuff like extremely obvious angle-baiting (showing the puck-carrier one overwhelmingly tempting option that you are in fact 'sitting on') or verbal interference ("Don't pass to him! I've got him! Don't make that pass!"). Try a head-first diving poke-check followed by a Scorpion-Kick if the guy flips it over you. Try anything.

The worst thing you can do in a stupid situation is to treat it like a sensible one: that's both frustrating and ineffective. Have some fun with it.

[psulion22 402]

I'll also add that it is also possible to take a stupid situation like it isn't a stupid situation and get work out of it. Like LG said, most drills are not goalie friendly and cause a lot of stupid situations. As a goalie, you have to break down the drill or play and understand what skills will be helpful to you and what won't. For example, if you keep getting 2-0's in pick-up, pretend they are 2-1's. Play it like there is a defender back with you. Focus on not getting beat on the shot, and forcing the pass. Then try to make the save on the pass play. Getting caught in the middle or cheating one way or another is where you develop bad habits from pick up. Along that line is rebounds. Often you will position yourself to be able to make a rebound save because you don't have defense back to help. Don't. Practice your rebound control instead, so there is no rebound. If there is going to be one, play it like a game. Make the first save, and then get in position to stop the next. It's worse to get beat on the first shot than the second, or third, or fourth. You don't HAVE to make every save in pickup (and you probably can't anyway). Trying to is what hurts how you play in games where the situations are a lot different.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will definitely try to practice some of my movements in the crease during the pickups, but don't want to at this point in games... I feel like I really need to try to keep my focus.

I do want to reiterate the fact that USUALLY the D in these pickup sessions isn't complete crap like it has mostly been the last month or so. They call it pickup, but its definitely not a drop-in by any means. This is an invite-only thing where most of these guys have been playing together forever, in some cases literally decades. I just don't want the "well, don't expect D in pickup" because for this its usually pretty decent. Or at least it was. Like I sad the last month has been brutal.

Anyway, on to my league game tonight. Lost 4-1 (our 1 goal came with 5 seconds left).

- First goal was a really good breakaway deke to the backhand and put it up over my pad... great goal, no complaints there.

- Second goal was a crap shot that squeaked in between my glove hand and my body. Should have had it for sure.

- Third... I'm not sure exactly what happened. It was a rebound that bounced around and hit a couple things before somebody banged it in.

- Fourth goal was a breakaway that I absolutely should have stopped. Guy wristed one to my glove side from the hash marks. It was literally in the best place it could have possibly been for me, and I just missed it. Guy with the white gloves decided to chirp me after it to the point where the ref had to tell him to get lost, then came over to me and asked if I knew the guy. I did not. What an asshole.

The refs told me to take down my gopro after warmup, unfortunately, so I was unable to record the game. They said I can have it on the outside of the glass but not the inside. Since this is a rookie league (not even considered D6) I'm going to ask the league director for an exemption since the entire point of this league is for learning. Not sure if he can help me, but its worth asking. This was actually the first week we had refs, previously it had just been the coaches.

I'm disappointed that I let my team down. They played really well in front of me for the most part (aside from the lack of scoring). The momentum was ours for most of the game. And the two times my D faltered, I wasn't able to bail them out. That's the part that stings.

On the other hand, I played pretty well for the most part. Their first goal didn't come until midway through the 2nd period. My first period was fantastic. Oh well, there's always next week.

On another note, my Passau knee pads feel amazing now that I got them adjusted the way I like. On tuesday they kept catching on my pads, but tonight I got them adjusted better and wore socks over them (with the bottom half of the sock cut off so it wasn't covering my calves). Felt good, and actually felt taller in the butterfly with less strain on my ankles. Very glad I didn't give up on them after one bad attempt at wearing them.

[psulion22 402]

I got called to fill in for a private team practice last night.

You want to talk about no defense and bad habits? For the first hour or so, there was no defense. Literally, the drills didn't have defenders. So for nearly an hour, I faced some variation of uncontested 2-0's. Of course the players ignored the instruction to get a shot and go far a rebound instead of dekes or backdoor passes. So I played the shot until they got into the circle. If they didn't shoot by then, I moved out of the crease and got ready for the next pair. Then I got a defender and got to face 2-1's. Woo Hoo!! But that was really just the defender overplaying the shot and leaving the back door open, then coming all the way across following the puck and leaving the first guy open for the return pass on the other side. I just practiced either trying to make the backdoor save on the first shot, or having an active stick and breaking up the pass. There's no reason to go crazy trying to make every save, and doing things wrong in the process.

[badger_14 601]

Took a while for people to trickle in this morning, so my favorite defenceman was directing a few players in warming me up with a variety of shots. I still feel like I let in about a thousand goals during the skate (way more than last week), but at the same time I was trying hard to move and stay square with the shooter and follow the puck. Win some, lose some.

I complained to the defenceman that I was losing to a plank and some orange cones [there wasn't another goalie, and they do this set-up where they prop cones on a stand and a "goal" is knocking one off], and he just patted me on the shoulder and told me not to worry so much.

[Law Goalie 147]

Badger, I promise you that they're A) trying far harder to score on you than on Mr. Coney Plank, and B) far more delighted at the prospect of even attempting to score on you, whatever the outcome.

Without goalies, hockey dies.

[badger_14 601]

I dunno, Mr. Plank is pretty good. He deflected a shot over the netting this morning. Nothing gets by him down low, either.

The guys I skate with have been generally very (surprisingly) supportive of my rocky transformation from 'panicked lump of padding' to 'possibly desirable goaltender'. The defenceman's kids (10 and 15, something like?) used to complain about playing in front of me but their dad apparently set them straight on that. At least on 'don't complain about the goalie when the goalie can hear you'.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Was just at goalie monkey. Tried on the gnetik pro 2 pads... Amazing. I know what I'll be getting!

We also determined that 33+1 is actually too small for me. He said a 33.5 would actually be perfect as the 34 is slightly too big but at least my knee pads didn't hang over the end like they do on the 33.

The knee pads that come with the Brian's are actually surprisingly good. Held in place quite well, I was shocked.

I'm going to order the glove right away, and the rest of the set after I've saved up some cash.

[beedee 227]

who helped you there? im friends with wyatt, big nick, lil nick, will, ryan and danielle.

they are having a sale this week for 4th of july, see if you can wait to buy the glove then. infact, i ordered my pads online yesterday and used code "gmgrad10" to save 10% on my order! i didnt want to risk waiting til the 4th of July sale since there were only 4 sets left in the P4 pads in the break I wanted.

Edited June 27, 2015 by beedee

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I have no idea, I don't think they wear nametags do they?

I really just wanted to confirm sizing and try the glove. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the gloves in stock, but more than anything it was the cuff I wanted to try, which is the same on the subzero pro.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Much better night last night. Only a couple goals. Unfortunately two of them were glove side and easy saves. Oh well, it's only pickup.

Sorry about the camera angle... damn it

[beedee 227]

Looked like a much more balanced session for ya, next to no outnumbered attacks.

You practice getting up with your right leg yet?